


To Keep Warm

by RamonaDecember



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Minor Misunderstandings, general fall shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2021-01-22 16:01:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21304742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RamonaDecember/pseuds/RamonaDecember
Summary: Dorian does not like Autumn. The cold comes creeping in. The days are shorter. And Iron Bull always cons him into an at-least-once-annual trip to the nearby farm. But Dorian does like apple cider. And blondes. And blondes who bring him apple cider.
Relationships: Dorian Pavus/Cullen Rutherford
Comments: 16
Kudos: 89





	To Keep Warm

**Author's Note:**

> been up to some halloween/fall antics on the ol' [cullrian discord](https://discord.gg/NaRYyf8) this past month. finally got around to cleaning this up.

“Have I mentioned how awful this place is?” Dorian complained.

“Not in the past—" Iron Bull glanced at the cellphone in his hand “—11 minutes now. Hey, would you look at that, a new record.”

Dorian pouted and tugged his sweater a little tighter around him. Neither that, the scarf around his neck, nor the hot cider in his hand were doing anything to lessen the chill that seemed to have managed to seep into his bones. He didn’t know how his friend was only wearing a t-shirt, but it probably had something to do with that bullshit ‘my people run warm’ line he used as an excuse to ‘share body heat’ with any poor soul who hadn’t learned his tricks yet.

Speaking of which.

“Aw, is the cold making someone grumpy?” Bull teased, wrapping an arm around Dorian’s shoulders and dragging him in against his side.

Dorian didn’t hide his eye roll or the disgusted noise he made as he shrugged out from under the weight of Bull’s arm. “We’re only at this orchard because you wanted to come,” he reminded. And because Bull bribed him into joining by saying he would check out the strange noise Dorian’s car was making if he came along too. And Dorian really needed to know what that grinding, clunking noise was. “So If you could spend less time manhandling me and cruising the pumpkin patch for single moms, and more time actually picking apples, that would be lovely.”

He turned on his heel to stalk off down one of the rows of trees with Bull close behind, close enough that he stumbled into Dorian when Dorian abruptly stopped in his tracks, putting one hand on Bull’s shoulder to brace himself, the other coming up to his chest.

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Dorian asked.

Iron Bull snorted, mumbling, “Dramatic,” under his breath as if this was news to either one of them.

Just what it was that Dorian was seeing was the most beautiful man he’d ever laid eyes on. Barely controlled curls set a shining gold in the autumn afternoon sun. Taught muscles all wrapped up in a flannel shirt that rode up to give just a peak of skin when he stretched up to pluck fruit from one of the higher branches of a tree. An ass more tempting than any of the apples in the entire orchard. 

It was only because of Bull’s raucous laughter that Dorian realized he’d say the last part out loud, and it was also his laughter that had the man turning to look at them. The smile that had been on his lips as he handed the apple down to a little girl next to him faltered once he found two sets of eyes fixed on him. A red flush colored his cheeks as he quickly averted his own eyes before ushering the little girl off away from them. 

“I am suddenly finding this place far more enjoyable,” Dorian said, following after the man with his eyes before doing so on foot as well. “Feel free to take your time.”

“So single moms are off limits for me but single dads aren’t for you?” Iron Bull called after him. “Don’t pretend you didn’t notice the lack of ring.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Dorian said all too innocently, before giving a little waggling wave of his fingers and disappearing between two trees.

\--

When Dorian tracked the man down again, he found him in the small pumpkin patch, now flanked on either side by a child, one boy, one girl. He was pointing every so often to a pumpkin, each of which was thoroughly inspected by the kids in their search for the perfect one.

Dorian planted himself on a bale of hay serving as a bench, making sure he was at least sort of in the man’s line of sight. The man did a double take when he glanced up to find Dorian not so subtly scoping him out once more. Dorian quirked up an eyebrow and one side of his mouth before downing the rest of his now tepid cider and pointedly looking away as if Cullen was of no consequence to him, like he wasn’t the one actively trying to get the man’s attention. An act that may have seemed much more suave and casual if not for the way Dorian still kept slightly shivering from the cold or shifting uncomfortably from the itchy hay.

When he glanced back to see if he could catch the man’s eye once more, only to find that his attention had turned fully to the woman that Dorian hadn’t seen approach during his attempt at playing coy. Dorian’s heart sank as he watched her lean in and kiss the man’s cheek only for him to beam back at her. 

Dorian huffed out a little indignant noise as he stood and strode away from the nauseating display in an attempt to go find his friend once more. Bull would love this story, though Dorian imagined much of his friend’s joy would be at his expense. But of course the man wasn’t single, ring or not. Of course his family was all as equally blond and pretty looking as he was. At least Dorian hadn’t been too much of a gaping fool before learning as much.

His frustration only grew when he happened back upon Bull only to find him chatting up a redhead next to a produce stand. Dorian couldn’t imagine what Bull was saying to her about squashes and legumes that could be that funny, especially coming from Bull, but she kept throwing her head back and laughing like Bull was the most hilarious man around. Or she was trying too hard.

Dorian mentally chided himself for sounding so bitter as he turned to walk away and leave Iron Bull to his newest conquest, even if he was regretting telling his friend to take his time at this point. His newest lap around the place somehow ended with him leaning over the edge of the fence of a small petting zoo. He couldn’t say that goats and chickens particularly delighted him, but he was running out of ways to entertain himself, and if the only way to find amusement until he could leave this stupid farm was to watch a child start to cry when a goat nibbled on the sleeve of their jacket, then so be it.

Naturally, there across the pen was that too-blonde-for-their-own-good family. The man was crouched next to the kids, hand full of dried feed stuck through the gaps in the fence alongside their tiny hands in an offering to the animals within. Dorian was surprised to find that smile of the man’s turn his direction as he stood, so much so that he actually turned to look over his shoulder to make sure it wasn’t actually directed at someone else. But when he turned back, the man was still looking at him, and if anything, his smile had only grown.

The moment was over too quickly when the man was distracted by what Dorian presumed was his girlfriend placing a hand against his back and leaning in say something in his ear. Something that had what was close to a smirk spreading on his lips for her. Dorian thought that was as good of a time as any to go find somewhere else to pout.

\--

Dorian wound up back on the same hay bale he’d been sitting on earlier, phone in hand, sending text after text to Bull, each one with a different complaint. He was cold. He was bored. He was quite possibly allergic to goats. And hay. And blondes. Which if the last one was true, he might have been alerted to the presence of one prior to him clearing his throat and almost causing Dorian to throw his phone in surprise.

The man stood over him, holding two steaming cups in his hands, smiling softly down at him. “Do you mind if I take a seat while I wait for my family to finish up in the shop?” he asked.

Dorian wanted to groan at his luck, wanted to tell the man that there was plenty of less occupied seating, but if nothing else, he had been raised with manners. So he gestured to the hay next to him in an open invitation. The man sat, looking like he wanted to say something but didn’t know how to begin.

“You and the girlfriend trying to warm up after a long day outside?” Dorian asked with a nod towards the cups, trying to fill the silence that was quickly becoming awkward. Sure, he was more sensitive to the cold, but after spending an entire afternoon outside, maybe they were feeling the chill too. “I’ve seen you two around all day.” He bit his tongue keep from saying anything else, realizing how creepy that probably came off.

“Girlfriend?”

“Wife?” Maybe they just weren’t ring people.

“Oh! No!” the man said too quickly. “This is for you.” He offered one of the cups to Dorian, which he took with hesitance and a raised eyebrow. “I’ve, um, also seen you around all day. You look cold.”

“You’re not wrong,” Dorian muttered. And he barely managed to get out the following, “Thank you,” before someone was calling out and, as had been the theme that day, pulling the man’s attention away from him.

“Cullen? Are you ready to go?” The equally blonde woman was standing a short distance away, pulling a wagon containing two children, each with a pumpkin in their lap. He held up a finger in a gesture bidding her to give him one moment.

“Cullen, is it?” Dorian questioned as the man—Cullen—stood. “Dorian,” he said with a gesture to himself.

“Dorian,” Cullen repeated, like he was trying out the way the name felt on his tongue, and Dorian himself had to admit he liked the way it sounded in his own ear.

“You shouldn’t keep her waiting,” Dorian said with a nod over Cullen’s shoulder to the group waiting for him. 

“You’re right,” Cullen agreed. “I don’t know who’s crankier without their afternoon nap—my sister or her kids.”

“Sister?” 

“Sister.” 

Now that Dorian actually spared the woman more than a passing glance, he didn’t know how he could be such an idiot. The pair looked way too similar to be anything other than related. Cullen gave him a smile like he knew exactly what Dorian had been thinking all day and was highly amused by it.

“Thanks again for bringing a little extra warmth to my day,” Dorian said, holding up the drink. His cheeks felt as warm as the cup in his hands. 

“Maybe I could again some time,” Cullen said with a shrug, but before Dorian could do more than give him a perplexed look, Cullen was giving him a little wave and heading off to rejoin his family.

\--

Iron Bull found him not too much longer after that, still sitting on the hay bale, a stunned look on his face. 

“How’d it go with the DILF?” Bull asked.

Dorian scowled, but there was no use in telling Bull not to be crass. “He’s not a DILF.”

“I know I wasn’t checking him out nearly as much as you, but that man was a certified—"

“I mean that wasn’t his kid you saw, you oaf,” Dorian said, exasperated. “A niece. A nephew, too.”

“Oh, you talked?” Bull questioned. “So it went well?”

Dorian shrugged, holding up the cup. “He brought me this.” If it could be considered ‘going well’ to have a handsome stranger bring you a hot beverage and then disappear into a family-friendly SUV never to be heard from again, then sure. It went well.

“Are you gonna call him?”

“How—"

Bull turned the cup in Dorian’s hands and sure enough, there was a string of numbers the was unmistakably a phone number. The stunned look returned to his face, Cullen’s parting comment suddenly making a lot more sense. And while he’d never give into Bull’s attempts to ‘keep him warm,’ he’d be more than happy to take up Cullen on the offer.


End file.
